Another issue I would change is the Jedi, give them uniforms that are not just bathrobes.

Doesn't the OT imply that the "bathrobe" look is the uniform of the Old Jedi, though? I mean, Obi-Wan's force ghost is wearing them and also, more importantly, Anakin's force ghost is as well. To me that's rather significant because it represents Anakin's return to the Light.

Plus, it makes sense (at least to me) that the Jedi would wear clothing that is not elaborate but maintains practicality. Lots of layers is pretty useful for both protection and heat maintenance.

Another issue I would change is the Jedi, give them uniforms that are not just bathrobes.

Doesn't the OT imply that the "bathrobe" look is the uniform of the Old Jedi, though? I mean, Obi-Wan's force ghost is wearing them and also, more importantly, Anakin's force ghost is as well. To me that's rather significant because it represents Anakin's return to the Light.

Plus, it makes sense (at least to me) that the Jedi would wear clothing that is not elaborate but maintains practicality. Lots of layers is pretty useful for both protection and heat maintenance.

No. Obi wan wore Tatooine bathrobes just like everyone else on the planet because that is what you wear in the desert.

Changes were made and the costumes for the Jedi evolved as the movies went along made. Anakin was dressed in desert robes at the end of Jedi because at the time that Jedi came out he was from Tatooine, a desert planet, and that's all we really knew about his background. The Jedi robes didn't became official until TPM because that knucklhead GL was out of original ideas by the time it rolled around and he wanted to beat us over the head with call backs. There are a lot of unfortunate mistakes in the PT, and Jedi robes modeled on the traditional garb of the desert dwellers of Tatooine was only one of them.

It's not a PT mistake. ( In fact, it's not a mistake at all, nor is it unfortunate, except to those who don't approve of it, which is only a matter of personal taste. ) Jedi are based on samurai, so they dress like samurai. And then there's Yoda with his clothes which are apparently nothing more than Dagobah fashion.

The Jedi robes didn't became official until TPM because that knucklhead GL was out of original ideas by the time it rolled around and he wanted to beat us over the head with call backs.

That doesn't make sense. If they weren't Jedi robes until the PT, it wouldn't be a callback. If he wanted the Jedi wardrobe in the PT to be a callback, why didn't they all dress like ROTJ Luke?

It's not a PT mistake. ( In fact, it's not a mistake at all, nor is it unfortunate, except to those who don't approve of it, which is only a matter of personal taste. ) Jedi are based on samurai, so they dress like samurai. And then there's Yoda with his clothes which are apparently nothing more than Dagobah fashion.

The Jedi robes didn't became official until TPM because that knucklhead GL was out of original ideas by the time it rolled around and he wanted to beat us over the head with call backs.

That doesn't make sense. If they weren't Jedi robes until the PT, it wouldn't be a callback. If he wanted the Jedi wardrobe in the PT to be a callback, why didn't they all dress like ROTJ Luke?

Samurai never dressed in bathrobes and when in battle wore armour, But if you must have Bath Robes just have it for meditation not out on missions like when they are rescuing the chancellor in Sith
In RTJ I believe Lukes combat suit was ment to be a quasi Jedi uniform, Simply change it to Navy Blue.

Let's take Anakin's original ROTJ ghost as an example. "But he was from Tatooine!" Yeah, but do you think he was supposed to have spent all his time there after becoming a Jedi? In fact, weren't we told outright that that was not the case? So why would his ghost be wearing Tatooine clothing as opposed to Jedi garb?

In other words, once again something established by the OT is being blamed on the PT. Because the OT can do no wrong, and the PT can do no right.

fett 4 said:

Also have them do things that are not completely stupid. The Novelization of Revenge of the Sith gives much better reasoning than the film for there actions in them.

But ultimately it's the same actions in either source, film or book. So if the novel justifies their actions by providing reasoning that you find acceptable, revealing them to not be "stupid" after all, that should mean the equivalent actions in the film can be similarly justified.

Let's take Anakin's original ROTJ ghost as an example. "But he was from Tatooine!" Yeah, but do you think he was supposed to have spent all his time there after becoming a Jedi? In fact, weren't we told outright that that was not the case? So why would his ghost be wearing Tatooine clothing as opposed to Jedi garb?

In other words, once again something established by the OT is being blamed on the PT. Because the OT can do no wrong, and the PT can do no right.

fett 4 said:

Also have them do things that are not completely stupid. The Novelization of Revenge of the Sith gives much better reasoning than the film for there actions in them.

But ultimately it's the same actions in either source, film or book. So if the novel justifies their actions by providing reasoning that you find acceptable, revealing them to not be "stupid" after all, that should mean the equivalent actions in the film can be similarly justified.

Regardless it makes no sense to wear bathrobes when your in fighter planes on rescue missions. Like I say if you must have them wear the robes, just keep them for meditation but for the workaday Jedi have a combat suit or uniform.

Of course it's better, having Yoda go off to Kashykk to draw Sidious out rather than randomly decide to go there because Kashykk was casually bought up makes a lot more sense.

Regardless it makes no sense to wear bathrobes when your in fighter planes on rescue missions. Like I say if you must have them wear the robes, just keep them for meditation but for the workaday Jedi have a combat suit or uniform.

In my opinion, the Jedi robes bear more of a resemblance to a kimono than a "bathrobe," but I suppose your mileage may vary on that.

As to the premise that it "makes no sense," I heartily disagree -- the Jedi's robes seems cheap and practical to me. They don't look particularly expensive which would make them easy to replace if they became damaged. Additionally, layering material provides better protection than simply using a single layer and it is more effective at maintaining heat.

If you ever go skiing, for instance, you're told to wear layers rather than one thick, heavy coat, because it's better to be able to adapt to changing conditions.

Plus, it wouldn't make sense to have the Jedi wear a combat suit -- they're not soldiers (as they themselves say). They're the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy. Luke himself only wore a combat suit as part of the Rebellion, but his clothing in ROTJ is hardly what I would consider military wear.

Of course it's better, having Yoda go off to Kashykk to draw Sidious out rather than randomly decide to go there because Kashykk was casually bought up makes a lot more sense.

Randomly decide to go there? He had "good relations with the Wookiees". Speaking of things that don't make much sense, in the novel Mace has long-distance contact with Yoda after finding out from Anakin that Palpatine is a Sith, yet they don't apparently warn the other Jedi about this and thus Order 66 goes down as in the film.

One rule of good writing: You never, never, never, never summarize your most important scenes.

That depends, doesn't it, on how important a scene really is for the overall story? I don't have to see Anakin saying goodbye to his mother to understand the pain of such separation or the tragedy of having her die in Anakin's arms when they are finally reunited. So to me it's not very important – and should certainly not be the determining factor when writing the script.

You could also have an older Anakin, say 15-18, and see him leave his mother. The separation isn't that much about Anakin missing his mother, but that would still play a part, but rather that he worries about her and an older Anakin might be in the position that he in some ways takes care of his mother. So he leaves but he still worries that she is a slave and all that.
Then she is killed in the next film and Anakin blames himself, that he should have been able to protect her but he failed.
This then sets up his desire not to fail with Padme and you go from there.

The young Anakin in TPM has problems but I can see why Lucas made the choice.
One problem is that how you put a young kid together with a group of adults and make his presence seem natural.
Him being on Naboo and involved in the battle makes little sense. Why would Qui-Gon bring him along when there was every chance that he could get killed? Leaving the "chosen one" bit aside, Qui-Go takes a small boy into a war zone and neither he nor anyone else comments on this. Only inside the palace does Qui-Gon tell Anakin to stay in the cockpit and that he would be safe there. Wouldn't he be safer on Coruscant or back at the Gungan hideout?

The young Anakin also meant that the role had to be recast which I again understand but I also think it had problems as AotC basically had to re-introduce Anakin Skywalker.

Lastly, the problem was also that many important character relationships were not developed much in TPM, like Anakin -Obi-Wan and Anakin - Padme. They met but not much more happened. This forced AotC to rush things in my view.

Bye for now.
Blackboard Monitor

Think I saw this in the special features: GL's reason for making Anakin so young was that he wanted that psychological damage that comes when a child too young is separated from the primary caregiver. He wanted Anakin's problems to have deep roots.

So then he wouldn't let the actors cry when it came time to film it. All this about the psychological underpinnings of villainy, and he wouldn't let the actors play the scene.

Yeah, sure, you could make it happen when he is older. But a child separated when he is almost old enough to go out on his own anyway, it's not the same. It's not. Look at all these people in the real world who have personality disorders or make the same unwise choices in love over and over again. Usually something happened long before they were 15.

- Older Anakin, maybe with some pre-Jedi minor control of the force to make him a viable candidate
- Terminator-esque battle droids that aren't programmed to be fearful idiots
- No Midichlorians
- No Gungans
- Replace Naboo with Mon Calamari
- Better character-development for Darth Maul
- Genndy Tartakovsky's General Grevious
- More of Mace Windu laying the smack down
- Jedi Council & Obi-Wan less oblivious to Anakin's brooding
- A prominent character that isn't a Jedi, Droid, Politician, Gungan, or Sith Lord
- Anakin fighting some Jedi Masters during Order 66
- Less pathetic deaths for the Anti-Sideous Jedi strike team

One rule of good writing: You never, never, never, never summarize your most important scenes.

That depends, doesn't it, on how important a scene really is for the overall story? I don't have to see Anakin saying goodbye to his mother to understand the pain of such separation or the tragedy of having her die in Anakin's arms when they are finally reunited. So to me it's not very important – and should certainly not be the determining factor when writing the script.

You could also have an older Anakin, say 15-18, and see him leave his mother. The separation isn't that much about Anakin missing his mother, but that would still play a part, but rather that he worries about her and an older Anakin might be in the position that he in some ways takes care of his mother. So he leaves but he still worries that she is a slave and all that.
Then she is killed in the next film and Anakin blames himself, that he should have been able to protect her but he failed.
This then sets up his desire not to fail with Padme and you go from there.

The young Anakin in TPM has problems but I can see why Lucas made the choice.
One problem is that how you put a young kid together with a group of adults and make his presence seem natural.
Him being on Naboo and involved in the battle makes little sense. Why would Qui-Gon bring him along when there was every chance that he could get killed? Leaving the "chosen one" bit aside, Qui-Go takes a small boy into a war zone and neither he nor anyone else comments on this. Only inside the palace does Qui-Gon tell Anakin to stay in the cockpit and that he would be safe there. Wouldn't he be safer on Coruscant or back at the Gungan hideout?

The young Anakin also meant that the role had to be recast which I again understand but I also think it had problems as AotC basically had to re-introduce Anakin Skywalker.

Lastly, the problem was also that many important character relationships were not developed much in TPM, like Anakin -Obi-Wan and Anakin - Padme. They met but not much more happened. This forced AotC to rush things in my view.

Bye for now.
Blackboard Monitor

Think I saw this in the special features: GL's reason for making Anakin so young was that he wanted that psychological damage that comes when a child too young is separated from the primary caregiver. He wanted Anakin's problems to have deep roots.

So then he wouldn't let the actors cry when it came time to film it. All this about the psychological underpinnings of villainy, and he wouldn't let the actors play the scene.

Yeah, sure, you could make it happen when he is older. But a child separated when he is almost old enough to go out on his own anyway, it's not the same. It's not. Look at all these people in the real world who have personality disorders or make the same unwise choices in love over and over again. Usually something happened long before they were 15.

That's absurd, you could easily have him as 13/14 and feel that way about leaving his mother, (it's also less ridiculous than a 9yr old being to old to be trained) besides no matter how old you are leaving your mother to suffer in slavery is going to have a huge effect no matter what age you are.

Which is a whole another issue, that should have been enlarged in the prequels. The slavery angle was never enlarged or followed up on and Shmi was already free by the time Anakin goes back so it really made no difference.

An Anakin angry about slavery and the Jedi not doing anything about it would make much more sense than Lucas suddenly deciding he want's to do Citizen Vader.

My idea of a better PT involves a complete rewrite from top to bottom. No midichlorians, no immaculate conception, no slavery, no Living vs. Unifying Force, no on-screen politics, no idiotic conspiracy, no prophecy, no Jar-Jar, no Qui-Gon, no queens or handmaidens or horrible outfits/makeup/accents.

As a kid, I always imagined that the Jedi had been on the decline for decades, if not centuries. That's why the Imperial officer and Han Solo were so dismissive. So, in my PT, the Jedi are an actual dying religion with ancient temples scattered on many planets. Existing Jedi are essentially Ronin - wanderers righting wrongs and generally trying to make things better at a grassroots level since their 'national' power is gone.

Obi-Wan would be a young idealistic Jedi caught up in a "damned fool crusade" on some planet where he meets Anakin, a young hotshot pilot. They get tangled up in the adventure, hit it off, and have fun. Obi-Wan discovers that Anakin is naturally gifted in the Force, and in his arrogance ("I thought I could train him as well as Yoda trained me"), decides to train Anakin.

Palpatine would be a disgraced former Jedi, exiled beyond the Outer Reach. There he finds cloning technology, and over the course of the trilogy, creates clones of system leaders to get them under his control. He fights a series of campaigns against the Republic. At the end, the Republic manages to destroy his cloning technology, but it's a Pyrrhic victory. Palpatine has taken control. He leaves the Senate in place until he can find a better way to run things.

Anakin falls in love with one of the other soldiers, who is from the Lars family of farmers on Tatooine. His fall to the Dark Side happens because he doesn't learn the lessons Luke does. He uses the Force to go down the easy path, and in the fateful confrontation with Palpatine, gives into his anger. He's tasked with killing Obi-Wan, but fails. His wounds are a result of Palpatine's disapproval, not Obi-Wan/lava.

The Twins' mother is hidden as a noble of House Organa on Alderaan. Obi-Wan takes Luke to live with his extended family and to watch over him. The Jedi, whose numbers were already low (remember: dying religion) are slowly hunted and killed.

Some details would likely need to be tweaked, but that's the general idea. Nothing unnecessary, and everything fitting in with what we're told in the OT.